Tommy Emmanuel: The Music on the Inside

The moment Tommy Emmanuel starts to play, he transforms the energy in the room. If you never heard him play before, the second he starts it’s immediate disbelief. He opened the interview playing a beautiful riff from Scarlett's World with his eyes closed. The way he bounced his foot to the rhythm and moved his head you could tell he was somewhere else, blissfully lost in music. Russ and Ryan sat there trying to decipher what chords he was playing as his left hand flew around the fretboard.

Ryan said, “your left leg, how much of that informs what you are doing on a guitar?” Emmanuel humbly jokes, “If you taped my feet down, I can’t play!” Needless to say, this interview turned into a mini concert — and we’re definitely not complaining. Check out the AMS Tommy Emmanuel interview now. 

Rhythm isn’t something he plays; it's something he needs to feel. According to Emmanuel, “The Groove has to be everywhere. I have to be able to move when I play.” He says “My thought process is like a record producer. I try to move things around and play things a certain way to please my ear. It’s a bizarre place to be between my ears.”

There’s always something to lead up to or unfold. Every note has a purpose, every section a destination. Every song should have that sense of adventure and like every good adventure, you finally get to go home.

Emmanuel says Scarlett Johansson’s incredible work as a storyteller in Lucy is what moved him. “It really blew my mind and made me think about how I’m here and this is my only time on earth. What am I gonna do with it?”

Most of Emmanuel's songs are written in an hour. And after a little bit of practice, he could perform the song that night. But not Scarlett’s World. It took him about two weeks, and he said that he over wrote for this one. He thought of so many ideas and had tons of chords blasting out of his guitar. 

The only way to truly serve this song was to listen to the soul. “It didn’t need me to be clever; it just needed me to tell the story.” He had to tell the story, but he needed to wait until he understood it completely and connected with the feeling of it. 

He got to the first part of that song within about 5 minutes. He was so sure of it. But as he got to the chorus, he was stumped. Again it had to come to him. He went to bed and when he woke up early in his Lake Oswego Hotel in Portland, Oregon, he walked out onto the balcony and looked at the lake and this voice in his head said, “If you bring your love with you.”

He claims it was the voice of the native people saying, “If you bring your love with you, we will welcome you. But if you are coming to take our place, you are in for a fight.” When you hear the guitar part to this song you get such a strong visual. Emmanuel says “That’s the movie in my head.” With all of his songs he really paints that picture and is able to guide you with music as he is always writing for something.

During the COVID lockdown, Tommy scored a film called The Tiger Rising. It featured Dennis Quade and Queen Latifa. He did everything but the opening theme, which was written by the musical director. “I wrote the score completely on my iPhone because I can write a song but I can’t write it on paper.”

Emmanuel’s song “Young Travelers” is based on the whole story of the movie: two characters who struggle, end up going off together. “It’s a message to the youth of the world to be a traveler and go meet other travelers.” He mentioned that we are all one race and we should explore what the world has to offer. “You may not get that type of chance when you are older.”

While Tommy was piecing parts of the song together he thought, “Oh what would Paul McCartney do? Repeat it!” So Tommy would quote the previous section in the song and change it a little. Ryan mentions that the song “Young Travelers” sounds like you're on a train to which Tommy adds he has written a couple songs on trains being “Train to Dusseldorf” and “Fuel”.

Even after decades of performing, writing, and producing music, Emmanuel is still as curious as he was when he first started. “I’m a tough cookie,” he says. “The songs have to please me. Do they take me somewhere?”

When meeting young fans on his tour in China, he asked what songs they connected with. Their answers made him revisit old songs he made, giving him the chance to fall in love with them again. He says it helped him improve. “It was a good thing for my playing.”

One of Tommy’s big teaching moments was that he found a way to relax. “I don’t walk around comparing myself to anyone else. Don’t waste your time doing that.” He also says, “I know that there are a million people better than me out there, but I play it the way I play it, I write the way I write, I sound like I sound, so I gotta be happy with that.” Tommy has found his sound but there is no trick to it, it just takes time.

Tommy learned at a very young age that he loved the stage. He would watch comedy show hosts and would learn how they would deliver jokes and handle themselves on stage. He was so interested he thought, “I want to make people laugh like that.”

Emmanuel takes pride in not being a serious musician, but his goal is always to entertain the audience as well as himself. Ryan says, “I think what fully keeps people from having fun on stage is ego.” Tommy replies “Oh, I am sure! I had enough ego to go around myself. When you finally grow up, you realize that you think way too much about what you do and what you know. I never forgot what my father said to me when I was a kid, he came up to me and just grabbed me. ‘Listen, you can be replaced, you know!’ We all have an ego but you can’t let it get in the way of being at your best.” 

Tommy is always curious about his next move in his career as an entertainer. “Last night, when I played in Boston, I couldn’t believe the room was jammed with people. It always blows my mind.” He also reassures that he never takes it for granted. “I strive to have the attitude for gratitude.” 

He also warns younger players not to fear imitation. “Go ahead and copy. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t copy Chet Atkins, Doc Watson, James Burton, and Roy Nichols. Everyone steals from everyone else. It’s nature’s way of lighting the fire under you.”

At his core, Tommy Emmanuel is still the kid from Australia chasing sound. His music tells stories of rivers, journeys, family, and love. He loves the question, “What is the formula for success?” He replies “I don’t know. But I can tell you how to fail: Try pleasing everyone.” A song is not about impressing the room, it's about connecting it.

We had a blast, learned a lot, and loved getting our minds blown by Tommy’s playing. A huge thanks to Tommy Emmanuel for taking the time to talk to us and regale us with his talents. If you enjoyed it too, don’t forget to subscribe to the AMS YouTube channel for more content just like this. And if you were inspired to start your musical journey, we have all sorts of amazing acoustic guitars for sale right here at AMS.